Crafts from salt dough: instructions and master classes for making crafts with your own hands

Greetings my beloved readers and blog guests!! Once upon a time in the distant past I worked as a teacher in a kindergarten, the work was very interesting, but poorly paid... But today we will not talk about that!! It’s just that anyone who has worked in this system knows that all the materials we use in creative work with children must be environmentally friendly or certified. Therefore, homemade tools come to the aid of purchased stationery. And the simplest means for development is salt dough.

Salt dough has been familiar since ancient times and is still popular in our time, because it is very easy to make, and it is a pleasure to sculpt from such a soft material. And what kind of crafts you get!! Just a sight for sore eyes!! I haven’t worked in the garden for a long time, but at home with my baby we often do modeling, and what was my surprise that not everyone knows how to prepare the dough and what can be obtained from it. That's why I decided to write an article on this topic.

And for a change, you can make New Year’s crafts with your kids from scrap materials, see ideas here.

How to make dough for crafts: recipe

You can make the dough yourself; for this you will need just a few simple ingredients: flour, fine salt, citric acid, vegetable oil and water.

First mix 1 cup of flour with 0.5 cups of salt and 2 teaspoons of citric acid. Pour into a saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of oil to the dry mixture. Place over medium heat, gradually add water and stir. No more than 0.5 cup of water should be used. When the mass pulls away from the walls of the pan and becomes one lump, remove the pan from the heat. Take the mixture out, place it on a board sprinkled with flour, and knead it with your hands like regular dough.

If you want to make colored play dough, you first need to dilute dry food coloring in water. You can also add a little gouache to the finished dough and knead it well so that the color becomes uniform.

How to prepare salt dough for modeling?

Prepare salt dough. Paint it in different colors, depending on what you want to make. The dough can be made uncolored, divided into balls and add a little gouache of the desired color to each and knead. It's better to make the dough in regular colors, and then mix them to achieve the desired one.

Keep the dough in a bag, or wrap it in cling film, or put it in a closed container so that it does not dry out. If it is still dry, add a little water, and if it is too wet, add a little flour.

Crafts from salt dough and plasticine: tips

1. Make the dough thinner and simply spread it on the base of the craft, so you can make butter on a piece of bread, or use brown dough to make chocolate frosting for a cake.
2. Try on the food you made with the toy plates that you will later play with so that they match in size
3. To stick the salt dough pieces together, use a wet brush. Apply a brush to the joint and stick the parts to each other
4. When making food for dolls, it is very important to make the dough as much as possible the same color as the original, for example, the carrots should be orange, not yellow or red
5. To prevent the colors from fading, open the craft with varnish. For activities with children, you need to use special harmless varnishes; they do not have an unpleasant odor because they are water-based

Why salt dough?

Many people are surprised to hear that the dough must be salted in order to make something out of it. The fact is that you can sculpt something from any dough, because it is always plastic, but not from any dough you can make crafts that will be stored for a very long time without losing their appearance.

The secret material - salt - cements the dough, so the products hold up after drying. The main ingredients of this test:

1. Flour;
2. Salt;
3. Water.

In addition, you can add other components, depending on what you want to get. This can be glue, oil or paint and can be added to any recipe. But the main thing here is salt, which should be finely ground and without impurities (iodine).

Drying figures from salt dough for modeling

There are two ways to dry salt dough crafts.

1. Air dry crafts. It is best if you place them on a smooth surface and leave them for several days. When the craft is dry, turn it over or lay it on its side so that it dries on all sides.
2. Baking in the oven. Preheat the oven well, place baking paper on a baking sheet, place crafts on top, place in the oven and turn off the heat. The oven should be closed and not opened until completely dry. You can also bake crafts at a temperature of 100°C, but in this case you need to watch them so that they do not burn

These two methods can be combined, for example, dry it in the oven for an hour, then leave it in the air, after a while in the oven, and so on until it dries.

Of course, if the craft contains other decorations (beads, beads), you need to dry it using the first method.

How to color salt dough?

There are two most common ways to color salt dough. The first method: after drying, paint the finished craft with acrylic paints or gouache using a brush. Second method: food coloring is diluted in water, then added while preparing the dough. When the craft is completely painted and dried, it must be coated with transparent manicure or furniture varnish in 2-3 layers. Each layer must dry before applying the next. This way the craft will last for a long time.

New Year's crafts made from salt dough

The child will really enjoy decorating the house before the New Year and making handicrafts together with his parents.

Christmas tree toys made from dough

You can make excellent Christmas tree decorations from salt dough, and even kids can handle making them.

1. Prepare play dough in different colors or uncolored
2. Roll out a flat cake and squeeze out a shape; you can use cookie cutters
3. Make a hole with a cocktail straw so that you can hang the figurine on the Christmas tree.
4. Decorate the toy as you and your child want: stick colorful balls on the Christmas tree, make a garland for it, let it rain, add a white snowball to the toy
5. Unpainted dough can be dried first and then painted with paints or markers
6. Dry the dough or bake in the oven
7. Pass the ribbon through the hole and hang the toy on the tree

You can make a lot of holes in the figures.

Or stick beads, beads and other beautiful stones into the dough, but in this case these toys cannot be baked in the oven.

You can decorate toys with ribbons or decorative ropes.

After the dough has dried, apply PVA glue to it and sprinkle the figures with glitter.

Color the uncolored dried dough with a permanent marker.

Cut out a figure in the shape of a mitten, make it a beautiful colored ribbon from colored dough and decorate it with a homemade button. This figurine can be baked in the oven.

Print the baby’s palm and draw Santa Claus in it - it will not only be a wonderful toy for the New Year tree, but will also remain as a keepsake.

You can also make a Santa Claus toy like this. To give him a beard, use a garlic press.

Make these other gingerbread toys from brown dough.

Making a New Year's candle from dough

To make a New Year's candle you will need modeling dough of different colors, a cardboard cylinder, for example, from a roll of paper napkins and red and yellow napkins.

• Let your child roll colorful sausages.
• Stick them on our cardboard base

• Decorate it with colorful balls
• You can simply cover a cardboard cylinder with one color and then decorate it

• Make a fire out of napkins and attach it to the top of our candle

Christmas tree made from dough

• First make a preparation for the Christmas tree; for this you will need a cardboard container of juice or milk. First cut off its top, cut along the side folds, and open it. You need to cut off the excess from the rectangles so that you get isosceles triangles. See how to do this in the diagram below

• Glue a cardboard base for your Christmas tree

• Now let your child decorate it: let him cover it with green dough - you will get a Christmas tree. All that remains is to add balls, a garland, a star, and don’t forget about the gifts under the Christmas tree

You can also make a Christmas tree like this

How to make salt dough?

You will need: a glass of wheat flour, a glass of extra salt, half a glass of cold water, a bowl.

Recipe

1. Take a bowl.
2. Pour in a glass of flour.

3. Add a glass of extra salt.
4. Fill with cold water.
5. Knead the dough.

The finished salted dough should not stick to your hands or crumble. It should be cool and easy to sculpt. I recommend watching the video master class!

SALT DOUGH | How to make your own salted play dough | A simple salt dough recipe.

Easter crafts made from salt dough

For Easter you can make the following crafts from salt dough:

• Decorated eggs made from flatbread dough

• Bunny figures cut from salted dough flatbread.
• Decorated three-dimensional Easter egg

• Egg cup

Easter eggs made from dough

Even a baby can cope with this task.

• Take the dough and mold it into an egg-shaped figure.
• Decorate it as you and your child want.

You can use mixed dough of different colors for the base, or you can make a base from unpainted dough and then paint it with paints or markers. Open the eggs with glue and sprinkle with cosmetic glitter. Glue the multi-colored balls; to do this, moisten the joint with a wet brush. Press beads, pasta, cereal, and other decorations into the eggs. Make prints with different objects.

In general, fantasize!

Dough egg cup

For this you will need a cardboard cylinder, dough and paints.

Cover a cut circle of cardboard with unpainted dough and mold it into a tail, head and other parts, as shown in the diagrams below.

Don't forget to cover the stand on all sides with dough.

Decorate the craft as your imagination dictates; you can use gouache or watercolors.

Open with water-based varnish to make the colors brighter and the craft to last longer.

How to paint crafts

After the products have dried, they need to be painted. And then they will finally acquire their brightness and beauty. To do this, you can take ordinary acrylic paints or gouache for drawing. The paints are easily diluted with water, after which they can be used to paint the craft. This activity will be no less exciting than modeling dough.

There is another way to color crafts - to tint the dough itself and sculpt it from colored pieces. The question of how to make dough for crafts colored is solved very simply - add paint or diluted food coloring to it.

But this technique will not be very convenient for small children, since in this case the dough cannot be eaten, and kids love to taste everything. Food coloring for children about one year old may also not be very useful. In addition, the colored pieces will mix with each other, causing the drawing to become unclear.

Dough crafts for February 14th for Valentine's Day

What does everyone associate with this wonderful holiday? Of course the heart! Let's make a festive heart with your child and give it to your parents.

Salt dough heart

Here, as everywhere else, we first make the base, in our case the heart, and decorate it!

You can decorate it with roses, it will be very beautiful. How to sculpt roses, see step-by-step instructions with photos below.

You can make a keychain like this with paws.

These cute couples are made very quickly and easily.

You can make a lot of these heart figures, make holes in them and make a garland out of them, which you can use to decorate a wall in your house.

Dough photo frame

Make an empty heart, decorate it and use it as a frame for a family photo, securing it on the back with colored cardboard.

Salt dough decoration

This kind of love fish will definitely suit your mother’s outfit on this special day.

Star

The asterisk is one of the simplest figures that even a one-year-old child can perform.

Step-by-step instruction:

1. Form a ball with your hands.
2. Make a cake out of the ball by pressing it down.
3. Use your fingers to form or cut out the edges of a star.
4. Use a toothpick to draw rays, eyes, a smile
5. Dry and paint.

Crafts from dough for March 8

On March 8th you can make these flower keychains for mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters. They can be done with younger children. You can use multi-colored dough or uncolored dough, and then decorate it with paints.

You can make this flower candlestick for a gift.

Make such interesting medals with your children, and most importantly, they are all different. Let the child give them himself.

Make figures in the shape of a figure eight and decorate them with flowers, stones, beads, in general, whatever your imagination allows.

Make a pendant with your child, for example, in the shape of a heart and decorate it: make flowers, leaves, decorate with paints, sign a congratulation.

Airplane - craft made from salt dough

A wonderful gift for dad or grandfather would be a salt dough airplane.

• Roll out the base for the figure - this will be the body
• Bend one side of it a little - this will be the tail. Attach the remaining parts to it

• Roll up the wheels and fenders for it

• Go over with a damp brush and attach the parts to the body

• Blind and attach wings in the form of triangles on toothpicks

• Make a propeller and also attach it to the body using a toothpick

• Let the figurine dry for several days

• Decorate the airplane with gouache

How to dry the dough?

After the crafts are formed, the dough will need to be dried. There are two ways to do this. The first method is very simple: dry the craft naturally, which will take several days. It is important that the craft is not exposed to sunlight or sudden temperature changes - otherwise it will crack.

The second, faster drying method is to use the oven. In this case, it is necessary to heat the stove to a moderate temperature of 70 degrees and dry the craft for about 1-1.5 hours. With this drying method, there is a danger that the craft may crack.

Crafts from dough for Maslenitsa

Maslenitsa is an ancient holiday that has many symbols and traditions. Crafts for this holiday are very diverse, you have plenty to choose from.

For the little ones, you can suggest making a sun, which symbolizes the onset of spring.

This is some sunshine for older children.

Invite your child to make their own pancakes from salt dough.

Pancake keychains

Panels and pictures made from salt dough

With older children, you can make a picture from salt dough.

For example, it could be a fruit basket. Follow the step-by-step instructions with the photo below.

• Roll out the uncolored dough to about 0.5 cm thick
• Prepare a basket template and, applying it to the dough, cut out the basket from it.
• Squeeze out the dough using a garlic press, twist it into flagella, stick it, moistening the joint first, onto the handle of your future basket. You can also add flagella to the rim

• Using a stack or knife, push through lines to imitate basket weaving

• Squeeze out the rolled out dough with a mold or cut out several leaves according to the template. Sell ​​them veins
• Stick leaves on the basket

• Now prepare the fruits: apples, plums, grapes, etc. Roll them into balls of different sizes and give them the desired shape. For apples, stick cloves in the place where the dried inflorescence should have been, the apples will look like real ones
• Combine everything in one picture

• Leave your craft to dry for several days, preferably naturally
• Decorate as you wish

This is a simpler picture you can make with smaller children.

1. Draw a background for it
2. Draw the outlines of the character figures
3. Ask your child to stick the dough without going beyond the outline.
4. Leave the painting to dry
5. When it's dry, invite your child to decorate the characters with paints.
6. Add small details
7. Open the picture with varnish, put it in a frame and you can hang it on the wall

Crafts made from salt dough - hedgehog

• Form the body and head of a hedgehog from uncolored dough.

• Make him a nose and eyes, you can use black dough or peppercorns

• Using nail scissors, cut the dough, making needles, lift them up a little. Cut the second row in a checkerboard pattern, and so on until the end.

• Leave the hedgehog to dry. When it has completely hardened, you can decorate it with paints and spray it with varnish.

Crafts made from salt dough - animals

You can sculpt many animals from salt dough with children. Below are some step-by-step instructions with photos.

Dough sheep

1. Roll 4 balls - these will be the sheep's feet. Place them in a square, pressing their sides tightly against each other (look at the photo)
2. Fold up a piece of foil and place it inside the dough ball. Roll it into a ball - this will be the body of a sheep
3. Add a head to the sheep, make balls-eyes, horns and ears from sausages
4. To imitate wool, make a lot of small balls and stick them around the back of the figure, pressing them down a little
5. Dry your craft and decorate with paints and/or markers

Salt dough owl

1. Roll out the dough into a round cake
2. Use a felt-tip pen cap to press waves, imitating plumage.
3. Fold the sides inward - these will be wings
4. Fold the top part towards the center too, extending it a little on the sides - this will be the head and ears
5. Stamp the eyes with a cap and add a beak with a toothpick
6. Dry and paint

Dough elephant

1. Roll the ball, stretch it out a little - this will be the body of the elephant
2. Make 4 thick sausages - these will be the legs
3. Make a trunk from another one
4. Make a tail out of a thin sausage
5. Roll out two flat cakes, put plates of smaller diameter and pink color on them - you will get ears
6. Collect everything into one figurine and don’t forget about the eyes
7. Dry the elephant and open it with varnish

Test features

The soft mass does not stick to fingers, has no irritating odors and is a hypoallergenic mixture. Contamination that appears on clothes and objects during the creative process is easily washed off and does not leave stains. Despite the edible ingredients, salt dough should not be eaten.

This material consists of available ingredients and is affordable, which allows you to do plenty of modeling with children of preschool and school age. It is easy to sculpt various shapes from it, since the material is very pliable, which allows even weak children’s fingers to cope with the task.

Motor development

The main secret to the safety of products is the presence of a large amount of salt in the workpiece. It acts as a natural preservative and, after drying, keeps the products in their original form for a long time.

Dough crafts - cat

• Cut out a cat template from cardboard

• Roll out the dough into a 0.5 cm layer
• Attach the template and cut out the cat from the dough

• Let the dough dry
• Using sandpaper, sand around the perimeter of the figure.

Paint the cat with a pencil and then with paints, let dry

Frame the panel

Apple

The apple craft is suitable for children aged 5-7 years. This craft perfectly develops creative imagination and teaches the child to subtly paint objects. The craft also perfectly develops fine motor skills.

Procedure:

1. You need to make a ball out of dough. Cut one half and press it down, making it flat.
2. Form half of the ball into the shape of half an apple.
3. You need to mold a stem and leaves from the dough and glue it to the apple.
4. You also need to cut out the seeds from a thin sheet of dough.
5. The craft needs to be dried and painted.
6. The apple is ready to decorate the table.

Advice. In this way you can create several different fruits from the dough. They will look great as a table decoration, and the child will be proud that he made such a still life himself.

Making a mushroom from salt dough

Roll the ball and press it on one side - this will be the mushroom cap

Make a sausage, a little narrower on one side than the other - this is the leg

Assemble the figure; to be sure, you can pierce it with a toothpick

Let the mushroom dry and decorate it

Dough crafts - fruits and vegetables

You can make many different vegetables and fruits from salt dough, which you can then play with and feed your dolls.

Remember that the colors of food for dolls should be matched as closely as possible to the original ones.

By following the step-by-step instructions and photos, you can make interesting figures from salt dough, which you can then give to friends and family for various holidays. We hope in this article you found a lot of interesting work and useful information. Have fun activities and beautiful crafts!

Testoplasty - where to start

Modeling from salt dough is an interesting process that will bring pleasure to everyone. The dough turns out so soft and pliable that you don’t want to let go of it. Therefore, for some needlewomen, dough crafts - testoplasty - are not just periodic activities with children, but a real hobby.

The youngest children can be introduced to dough as the first material for modeling. The dough is superior to plasticine because it is harmless to children. If a young researcher has tasted the mixture, do not worry, the dough does not contain foreign impurities or harmful additives. The child can do whatever he wants with the dough: knead it in his hands, pinch off pieces, roll it into balls, sausages, cut it with a knife. Such manipulations are useful for fine motor skills.

For children aged 2-3 years, simple crafts are enough. First, these are flat dough shapes that are cut out using cookie cutters, round lids, or a clay knife.

Children over 4 years old are ready for crafts that are more complex than just cutting with a shape. These can be Christmas tree decorations, three-dimensional animal figurines, vegetables, fruits, small toys as gifts for friends. Using salt dough, you can make wonderful counting material for teaching mathematics in games.